Here's a Way to Support Reading Comprehension Goals in Speech-Language Therapy: Background Knowledge

As language specialists, we can often see the language-based causes behind kids who are struggling to comprehend what they read. This is part 3 of a 4-part series on how we can support our students' reading comprehension goals.

If you've read enough articles and listened to enough podcasts about reading comprehension, chances are you've heard about "the Baseball Study."

The Baseball Study (reference below) was completed by Recht & Leslie in the 1980s. In a nutshell, the researchers wanted to know what effect prior knowledge about a subject would have on students' reading comprehension. To find out, they separated students in the 7th and 8th grades into four separate groups. The groups were established based on students' reading proficiency and how much they knew about baseball. The researchers then gave the students a reading passage about half of an inning of a baseball game and, afterwards, assessed the four different groups on their comprehension of that passage.

Who do you think comprehended the passage better? Students with strong reading skills but weak knowledge of baseball? Or students with weak reading skills and strong knowledge of baseball?

The results of the study showed that the students who were weak readers but who had a lot of background knowledge about baseball comprehended the passage the best. Even better than strong readers.

Interesting, right? This rings true IRL too; I know when I'm reading about something I already know about, my reading comprehension is usually much better. Conversely, if I'm reading about a topic that I'm not familiar with, especially when there are a lot of specific concepts or terminology associated with it, I have to work a lot harder to comprehend what I'm reading.

When we have background knowledge about a topic, it means we are familiar with the concepts around that topic and with the vocabulary specific to that topic. Working as speech-language pathologists in different geographical areas and with kids of different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds, we can be sensitive to this: Kids who live in the southern US may be less familiar with the topic of blizzards. Kids from families with less financial resources may not be as familiar with the topic of air travel or staying in hotels. Kids from New York City, where I work, are usually less familiar with the concepts and vocabulary around having a backyard. Kids from various cultures may be less familiar with specific religious holidays. You get the idea!

Here are three ways I incorporate this concept of background knowledge into my reading comprehension goals in speech-language therapy:

1. Whenever a teacher shares a text they'll be reading with my students, or whenever I am previewing texts or other materials for my own potential use with students, one of my priorities is to consider the students' background knowledge about the topic -- its concepts and vocabulary -- in the reading passage. If a student doesn't have much background knowledge about the topic, I'll either choose a different passage/materials, or I'll do some initial work with the student around familiarizing them with it. I do this by either watching videos with them about the topic, or by connecting it to a topic or concept the student is already familiar with.

   
   

2. For my students with Developmental Language Disorder (For 6 important facts SLPs should know about DLD, see this post), I take into account how much longer these students may take to acquire the vocabulary around a topic. I support this by incorporating the topics they are learning in their Science and Social Studies classes into my therapy sessions. You can see an example of how I did this with a Science topic my students were learning in this post. By supporting my students' vocabulary development around a specific topic -- and therefore their background knowledge -- I can improve their ability to comprehend written information on this topic in the future.

   
   

3. I get to know my students. This way, I'll have a better intuitive sense of whether or not they may possess background knowledge about a specific topic. This also allows me to choose reading passages they'll find more interesting, and cues me in when I need to do a little more work around supporting their background knowledge while addressing their reading comprehension goals during our speech-language therapy sessions.

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Reference: Recht, D. R., & Leslie, L. (1988). Effect of prior knowledge on good and poor readers' memory of text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(1), 16–20. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.80.1.16